They have had enough of meaningless test prep assignments in school and for homework. Now “scholars” at Success Academy High School of the Liberal Arts are rebelling. According to a change.org petition, the final straw was what they call the “magnitude” of summer assignments producing a “damning” level of student anxiety. They want to know why, if this work is so important, it was not incorporated into the regular school year curriculum. They are also upset because the student body has “constantly been silenced by the leaders of Success Academy High School of the Liberal Arts.”
An article in the New York Daily News quoted students upset about the summer homework policy and a snide response from a Success Academy representative. Students complained they were assigned to read and report on social media about a series of books, submit weekly SAT-prep assignments, and complete a series of math tests. The Success spokeswoman dismissed student upset and defended the assignments as “the reality of an academically rigorous high school and competitive college admissions” program.
The Success Academy Charter School Network, despite its political connections and high-powered financial backing, has been the subject of repeated accusations and exposés, including the mistreatment of elementary school children. The Success website claims it is “reinventing the American high school” by providing “rigorous and exciting academics, specialized opportunities for talent and leadership development, and comprehensive support for college admissions and persistence.” Protesting students apparently do not think so. They are examples of “leadership development,” but I suspect it was not what Success Academy intended.
The summer homework petition is not the first student protest against Success Academy policies this academic year. Before the start of the 2017-2018 school year, students complained when Success imposed a new very expensive student dress code that drew an outraged reaction. Required clothing for girls cost $267 and for boys a whopping $291.
The Wall Street Journal, generally a strong supporter of the Success Academy Charter School Network, reported that in January about a third of the Success High School students staged a sit-in protesting against unduly harsh penalties for minor infractions of the Success Network’s disciplinary code.
The school’s principal, Andrew Malone, tried to balance structure with increasing freedom, but suddenly students were warned they would be “held over” for “cultural infractions.” At Success High School students can be suspended from classes for arriving late to school, violating the dress code, failing to have a pencil, “Getting out of one’s seat without permission,” and going to the bathroom at “undesignated times.” Repeat offenders risk being expelled. Students can also be suspended or expelled for “disobeying or defying school staff or any school authority/personnel and for “posting or distributing inappropriate materials,” which means protesting students potentially face severe punishment.
Success is very proud that all sixteen members of the high school’s initial graduating class will be attending four-year colleges next year. But what is puzzling is that the sweet sixteen are the survivors of 73 children who started out together in first grade. Success has not reported on what has happened to the other 57 students, more than three-fourths of the initial group. A public school program with a 75% dropout rate would have quickly been closed down. The high school’s staff is also disappearing. About a third of the teachers left last academic year and the principal is now leaving also. It appears he may have been pushed out by network CEO Eva Moskowitz.
As of Sunday, June 8, the petition had over 650 supporters. One of the hashtags for the petition is #SayOurNameNotOurTestScores. If you Google the hashtag, it takes you to a Success for All Foundation webpage that promotes the Success Networks high-stakes test prep curriculum. But as these students demand, they want to be respected as human beings, not test taking automatons.
REQUEST FOR SUMMER HOMEWORK REVISION
We as a student body have constantly been silenced by the leaders of Success Academy High School of the Liberal Arts. We've all received the summer homework and the amount of anxiety that has emerged is damning. Specialized schools such as Brooklyn Tech, Loomis Chaffee, Phillip Exeter are the best schools in New York; however, they do not have summer homework of this magnitude. As principals, they believe students should read five books in six weeks. When one of the principals served as an ELA teacher students only read one book in five months and did no writing assignments in AP Literature outside of test prep.
What we are doing during the summer is what we should’ve been doing during the school year. SAHSLA-MA and BX, we all must come together and stop being silenced; through the signing of this petition we are not only able to gain support to revise the summer homework but to call attention to the detrimental effects of how overwhelming academic work has been on us.
At this point, the psychological impacts are not even overlooked . . . they are literally swept under the rug and we cannot just sit here and let administration continue with this abuse and damage us. The school provided us with a seminar about stress management, and in a matter of a week they launched out the immense amount of summer homework right before the day of the standardized SAT II exam. The number of my peers I have seen crying and having panic attacks in the hallways is depressing. We all must call for our parents and shine a light on the drastic decrease in employment of teachers causing us to be orphans without a staff or administration to turn to.
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